There are honest merchants and thieves. Farmers, fishermen, carpenters, whores. Artists are held in high regard, as are musicians and dancers.”

“The dancers at court must be very accomplished.” Her eyes lost focus as she peered into her imagination. He’d have paid good coin to be able to see what she was imagining. She turned her head and rested her cheek on her hand. “Do you think I’d succeed there, or would they laugh the graceless barbarian back into the sea?”

“Graceless? I’m not going to honor that with a reply. It’s beneath you to fish for compliments.”

Something shifted in her expression, too fast and too subtle for him to catch. “I am a barbarian though. Serat likes to remind us of how poorly we compare to the entertainers in the capital.”

Serat was an ass. “You’d be dancing before the throne in no time at all.”

She smiled. “I think I’d like to see your city, Janek. Even if only once.”

“And I’d like to show it to you.”

For the first time, he let himself truly consider it—taking her with him, claiming her as his own, building a home and a family. He dismissed the image as soon as it fixed in his mind. He wasn’t interested in a wife, and even if he were, he could never choose someone like Lorel.

“I’m leaving the Keep this afternoon,” he told her. “There’s an errand I need to attend to for Serat. That’s why I came to see you, to gather my things and say goodbye.”

“Will you be gone long?”

“A week at least, possibly more.”

“I see.” She lowered her eyes to veil her expression. “I’ll return to the servant’s quarters.”

He nudged her chin up. “This is not a dismissal. Feel free to use my rooms while I’m away. I will look forward to seeing you again when I return.”

With any other woman, it might have been a platitude. With Lorel, it was the plain truth.

She blushed as prettily as if she believed it. “Where are you going?”

He couldn’t answer with the truth. No matter how much he might like to trust Lorel, he knew that he could not.

“It’s nothing that need concern you.”

5

Janek’s absence provided the perfect opportunity for Lorel to explore the Keep, and she took full advantage of it. She was already familiar with the common areas—the kitchen, receiving halls, bailey, and stables—but she’d had little chance to search more widely until now.

The fourth floor, where Janek slept, was a disappointment. There were several closed doors on the long hall, all of them locked. She’d carefully broken into each room only to find them all stuffed to the rafters with broken furniture, mouse eaten tapestries, and dust covered chests of old clothing. There was nothing that was of use to her, and there was no way to escape from any of the rooms except over the balconies and into the sea below. That wasn’t an escape route she would consider unless there was truly desperate.

The end of the hall was blocked off. Nearly fifty years ago, a terrible storm had damaged the foundation of the tower. The people living at the Keep at the time had done what they could to stabilize it, but it had never been fully repaired.